Davido Covers ThisDay Style | Photography by TY Bello

Talking about the shoot, TY Bello says “DAVIDO: I had the most amazing shoot with @davidoofficial [email protected] have mad love and respect for the guy.. He’s a true artist .. And he was happy to experiment . Refreshingly down to earth and we had a blast!thanks @duchesskaykay @kamalajiboye and Natalie for rocking this .. Special thanks to @okunoren for letting us do this to a beautiful jacket? I love my job #tybellophotography #davido #colors by @bethelmusic”

She adds that “DAVIDO: My Portraits of@davidoofficial tell the LOVE story of ART..birthing REJECTION .. Our DEFIANCE making way for a CLEANSING finds us PEACE where it matters …with our work ..with our self.. with GOD”

The Cover photo is lovely. I don’t know the idea behind the other ones. The effect looks too much for me. Something simple and clean would have made it. Its all good. I downloaded the mag on THISDAY already.

I really, truly hope all the very best that God has for TY Bello and her family. I cannot, however, reconcile neither understand her Christianity (all the mentions of GOD) and some of the influences, looks, and statements she brings into/involves and uses, depicts/portrays, and makes.

How does Christianity and he commandments of God, His Word jell with photographs of women in tight, body-hugging/revealing clothing, use of masquerade masks, traditional/religious/ethnic body paint? Does she not know the meanings these things hold and their use and significance. Does she not know what the Word of God commands about these “”graven images”” and idols?

When someone like Beyonce decides to turn to the powers of darkness and, evidently, sells her soul for fame and fortune, and consequently and subsequently glamorizes and promotes these through her every product, be it her use of the Yoruba Sacred Art of The Ori body-painting on herself and all her dancers – its, and hers in using it, deeply spiritual meanings, functions and intentions which have never been hidden – or, the intentional spiritual meaning and symbolism of the bus ride in the her video as the journey of herself and her dancers to the afterlife; her deliberate and knowing identification with and personification of herself as oshun, the Yoruba river goddess; dressing and depicting both herself and scenes in her videos exactly as portraits and paintings and art and mythology of oshun depict the goddess and her actions; and, not only in her videos but in her various live performances on various platforms carrying on the rituals and drawing on those dark influences, such as her almost ubiquitous pool of water in which she and her dancers must dance; all these, along with the water baptisms (something which pre-dates Christianity and is practised in almost all religions of the world) and all other rituals throughout her latest visual album and live performances, are certainly surprising and to some, even shocking and disappointing but then, Beyonce has never (except, perhaps, for that vacuous line in the Destiny’s Child song ”Survivor”) prefixed and suffixed and interspersed just about anything she says or puts out there with “”God””, and with references to her Christianity, like TY (and quite a few other social influencers and avowed Christians) do.

Tattoos are never ‘just’ tattoos. Ritual and ceremonial masks (in ANY culture) are never just ‘art’. ‘Art’ is their secondary, and often, incidental function. In just about all African culture and tradition, mask-wearers lose all their human identity and take on the identity of the spirit represented by the mask. They, thus, serve as mediums between their sphere of influence and the spirit(s). Masks and masquerades are, also, known in Nigerian and Africa for their major use in ancestor worship, the worship of the dead. Tribal paint symbols, marks, lines, dots, sign/signage are NEVER ‘just’ paint. Be they on huts, dwellings, buildings, skin, faces, body, fabric. They are languages, they are words, they are messages, they are esoteric, they are invocations, they are symbols representing embodiments of spirits and powers, they are marks of identification, of membership, of initiation, of worship, of rank. They are not put on and worn lightly, casually. Rather, because of what they signify, act as a portal for, and mean/speak, they require special rituals, sacred rites and preparations, sometimes for days, often in special, specific places such as forests, shrines, secluded places where only devotees and initiates can go, before these marks, symbols, dots, before this paint is applied. They become spiritual entities; no longer (merely) human but embodiments of spirits which possess them. Once applied, for specific purposes and assignments, when the purpose and/or assignment is carried out, the initiates (for such every wearer MUST be) have to return to that place away from uninitiated eyes and ears, to go through more rituals and rites so as to be ‘neutralised’, even before the paint is wiped off, to make them safe to re-enter normal, human society.

“”But He turned and rebuked them, and said: Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.””

Whoever has exercised their God-given free will to choose any of these religions and their corresponding beliefs, practices and cultures, is quite free to do so.

“”Let whoever names the Name of Christ””, however, “”separate from evil.””

Do not dilute, pollute nor corrupt the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do not give unbelievers and unlearned Christians false pictures of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, of Christianity. Do not put stumbling blocks in the way of “”any of these little ones”” (including myself). For their is a price and a judgment to pay. And the world, ‘modernity’, ‘civilisation’, ‘art’, will have no say in that day.

Let us repent wholeheartedly; let us humble ourselves before the God Who made us and Who lifted us that we might serve Him, that we might glorify Him, and only Him, that we might serve His Purpose with the platforms He has given and blessed us with.

The shots are BEAUTIFUL…it’s ART…make of it what you will…that’s the beauty of ART..it can mean so many different things to so many different people…A picture says a thousand words..♡♡♡…Sandra from USA